Accused in homicide has assault convictions on record

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This article was published 31/05/2022 (940 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The man accused in the recent slaying of a woman in the Maples has a history of domestic abuse, court records show.

On May 30, Winnipeg police were called to 31-year-old Tessa Perry’s Marlow Court home. She was found severely injured and later died in hospital.

Justin Alfred Robinson, 29, of Thompson, is charged with second-degree murder and failure to comply with a probation order. He remains in custody.

A Free Press review of court records and a recent hearing shows Robinson has been convicted of four assaults and one aggravated assault (all but one of which were related to domestic relationships), as well as court breaches. He appeared in bail court Wednesday for the murder charge.

During a May 2020 hearing for a May 2019 aggravated assault, to which he pleaded guilty, a provincial court heard Robinson assaulted the ex-partner of his then-girlfriend.

It also heard the women he had been past convicted of assaulting were often vulnerable and marginalized.

On May 9, 2019, Robinson and a woman had been in a relationship for a number of months. She wanted him to meet the father of her children, who she had an amicable co-parenting relationship with.

She brought the man to her home, where Robinson was waiting and intoxicated, court heard.

He pushed the man down a flight of stairs and stabbed him once in the left abdomen with a paring knife, breaking the blade. Robinson then got a piece of metal and hit the man on the back of the head.

The victim managed to walk himself to hospital, where he received treatment and was released within days, court heard.

For the aggravated assault, Robinson was given a 10-month sentence in custody, a 10-year weapons prohibition and two years of supervised probation. He was ordered not to contact the man nor the woman involved.

Court also heard alcohol has played a significant factor in Robinson’s past criminal offences.

Perry, a mother of four who had moved to Winnipeg from Thompson for a new start, was remembered as a loving person who had done her best for her children at a candle-light vigil Tuesday. About 250 people attended.

“Tessa was a shining star who impacted everyone that met her,” said Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, an advocate for marginalized Indigenous women, and Perry’s aunt.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera